Formerly the island appears to have been wooded, but it now presents only a few bushes (Edwardsia, Broussonetia, &c.), ferns, grasses, sedges, &c. The natives grow bananas in the shelter of artificial pits, also sugar-canes and sweet potatoes, and keep a few goats and a large stock of domestic fowls, and a Tahitian commercial house breeds cattle and sheep on the island.
It is not known whether all the eight mesenteries of Edwardsia are developed simultaneously or not, but in the youngest FIG.
There are now eight mesenteries present, having exactly the same arrangement as in Edwardsia.
In Actinia equina the Edwardsia stage is arrived at somewhat differently.
The derivation of the Zoanthidea from an Edwardsia form is sufficiently obvious.